Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Your band seemed to come out of nowhere and exploded on
the scene. How did the group come together?

David: Perfect timing actually. Derek and I were still
working on songs in the ashes of Landfill’s demise, and Mike and Matt were
looking to form a hardcore band following some down time after Crime Wave had
finished. I got a message from Mike one day asking if I was interested in doing
a new hardcore band with him and Matt, and the rest of the story is on the demo
tape.

I know your members are part of other bands. How do you
balance the efforts in multiple bands?

David: Matt and I are the only ones juggling other projects
right now (I think), although, Mike is a really prolific songwriter and
releases his own stuff all the time via SoundCloud and cassette (Banbang! for
instance – go buy it at Deep End, you won’t be sorry).

For me, it’s a balancing act of epic proportions to make
being a dad, paying bills and also being in multiple bands work, but Loose
Nukes is really important to me, so I will always make it a priority.

I’ll do my best impression of what Matt might say to this
question: (clears throat) “Hold my beer.”

Your Fast Forward to Extinction cassette EP has gained
lots of praise, mine included. Was that a self-released item? Are you also
working with Agrowax?

Mike: Yes, it was self-released, and that was Agrowax’s last
release. I'm done with that shit.

FN: Your sound is a fantastic homage to 80s hardcore.
Besides the music, your artwork brings me back to the 80s Cold War era. Also, with
recent events, the nuclear scare is a common thought. Do you feel the current
world creates a ripe environment for writing angry songs?

Mike: Yes...and I think people should be pissed off. And
afraid. There’s a lot of information and misinformation out there. The reality
of getting obliterated in a nuclear war at this point seems very real. You
can't help but feel a little helpless.

What are your thoughts about the digital direction the
music scene has been sucked into?

David: The digital medium made it easy for us to release our
demo while we waited for cassettes to be ready, so for us, the digital world
has been awesome for us. Plus, Mike put some really cool videos together on
YouTube for the demo, so go check ‘em out on the Agrowax channel.

When writing, what is your process?

Derek: Most of the time Mike and Matt write the songs, and
then they record a rough idea and send them to the group SoundCloud.

Is it a collective activity?

Derek: Occasionally we will jam on something spontaneous,
and a couple songs have come about that way. We’ll practice and adjust a few
things until we feel ok with the final result.

Are the lyrics usually written before or after the music
is complete?

Mike: Yes.

What are your future goals?

David: This year, we are planning to release a series of
45’s with 2-3 songs per release, and we will continue to write and record. We
have some upcoming gigs with Khobretti and Agent Orange that we are stoked
about playing.

Do you plan on doing any regional touring?

Matt: We discussed doing a small or short Midwest
kind of tour this summer, but nothing concrete has been planned yet. We talk a
lot of shit, so it’s more of a “wait and see what we can do” approach to things
like that.

David: It’d be awesome to do some Texas
shows outside Houston
-- not just the big cities either.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

I was impressed when first hearing your CD demo. However, I
was even more absorbed when seeing you live. What is your mental approach when
playing live?
Our overall approach when playing live is simple, have fun
and entertain. Our perspective has been and will continue to be “we will play
for 6 people or 60 people”. You can expect the same effort each time we show
up. For the effort itself we have a band goal to not take ourselves too
seriously, but there are two key elements we look for in our live shows, energy
and tightness. We don’t always succeed but we will keep trying.

I see you have been gigging more frequently. So far, what
has been your favorite show?

Our favorite show is the next one someone will let us play.
Of the shows we’ve done it seems the next is always a little better.

Where did you record your demo? How was the process?

We recorded the two demos we have on FB in our practice
space. It’s very rudimentary. We used my old MOTU 896 and didn’t spend much
time on it. We just wanted to get something to hand out.

The music has a 90's metallic crossover sound with powerful
vocals. Is that an accurate description? For those who have never heard
Takedown, explain in your own words what they should expect.

As far as the overall sound, we try to take that late ‘80’s
early 90’s hardcore punk rock style and make it relevant to today. There are
definitely elements of metal there but the underlying element and foundation is
straight up hardcore punk rock.

What are your long term goals and do you have any new
recordings planned?

We don’t have any long term goals. We just take it as it
comes. We have upgraded our recording gear and will hopefully have a legit full
length by end of summer 2018.

All of your logos and t-shirt artwork have a military theme.
Can you provide more details regarding that?